Our 18 year old daughter just started at Illinois State; we dropped her off last week. It was a big decision whether to stay home or go. She missed her senior year, so she wanted to go. Even though the classes are all online, she loves being in the dorm, which is half empty because there are only 6000 kids living on campus this semester.
I’m in a parent’s group for a particular set of dorms. We check in and ask how each other’s kids are doing, we try to find out who’s lonely and who is not. Then I tell my daughter, “Hey, there’s a girl two doors down from you, and she’s by herself.” So she’ll go over there and befriend her, she’s one of those kids that will do that.
When we dropped her off, we saw lots of kids walking around campus. Everybody wore masks and was distancing. I thought everybody was being very respectful. They’ve put in three big testing facilities on campus. They’re picking up their lunch at the cafeteria, eating outside. They are really trying hard to make it work.